A/N: Now don't have a heart attack, but yes, this is an update to One Appointment. I also have another that needs some cleaning and finishing regarding a few scenes. Hopefully, I will be able to post it early next week.

The One Appoint We All Must Keep

Chapter Seventeen

After lunch, the entire Gryffindor tower was gathered in the common room as the Headmistress introduced them to Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt who was on injured reserve and was acting as their pro-tem Head of House and advising the Headmistress on security issues. She left the man to take charge and he looked around the room, his eyes taking in the various students and what he had been told regarding them from several different sources including two of his own former classmates.

Sirius had filled him in the mischief-making twins who were clearly the sons of Arthur Weasley, as well as what he knew about his godson's fellow second years and several others he had met during the summer break. Greeting the students, he filled them on his expectations, then met with each of the year mates, his experience as an auror giving him a good idea of each of their personalities and lives.

When he reached the second year students, he was amused when Harry greeted him with a handshake and nodded. For a twelve-year-old student, he seemed to have a very old soul but there was a glint that reminded Kingsley very much of his father. The girls had also proven very interesting as the Patil twins were clearly polar opposites of one another and the Granger girl, well it was rather clear why so many of the teachers thought so highly of her.

Lastly, he spoke with the first year students and by the end of the interviews knew that young Colin Creevey was going to need a little extra guidance as it was clear that he had a very big case of hero worship for the Potter boy.

Dinner Time:

Bill wrote a note and sent it to Charlie, then after taking a few minutes to gird himself for what he needed to do, he exited the house and walked to his father's shed. Silently handing him the copied letters, he shook his head as his father sputtered no, not possible as he read the correspondence between Molly Prewett and Ginny.

When he sank onto his recliner, Bill said with a trace of pity in his voice, "I agree with Professor Snape, she isn't going to get well unless she spends time with a mind healer and we also have to figure out a way to cut off all contact with Molly. I know there is a spell, I will research it."

"Don't bother," Arthur said with a pained expression on his face as he looked at his eldest son. "I know the spell. Amelia Bones told me that it might come to this, but I resisted, mainly because once this is done, there can be no contact for any of you for at least five years or until Ginny is an adult for her."

"Dad, I am sorry, but-?" Bill wanted to ask him why he hadn't performed it already. He bit his tongue in anger as he couldn't help feeling that his father was still a bit deluded as to how bad this entire situation could become. He had paid a visit to his mother and had been horrified at how she had tried to get him to help her fulfill her delusions. Charlie had had the same result, and both of them had spoken to their father about it.

"I wanted to give you older boys the option if you wished it to spend time with her." He replied with a heavy sigh. "I, Arthur Trepont Weasley, do forbid any of my direct living descendants from contact with the witch known as Molly Anne Prewett until such a time as my youngest living child, Ginevra Weasley is considered an adult witch by Ministry designation as well as my own."

"I sent a copy of the letters to Professor Snape, he needs to know what is in them regarding Harry Potter, so does Harry's godfather, dad." Bill reported then looking around the small shed, looked at his father and said "Dad, you need to take better care of yourself. I know that it is easier to hide out here, to pretend that this isn't happening, but you can't. I am worried about you."

He nodded soberly then told his son "It is not so bad when I am at work. I don't have to face up to what I allowed to happen here, but when I am here and now that the younger children are back in school, there really is no hiding away from my mistakes."

"Then don't. Face them then move on." Bill gently nudged his father. "Things aren't going to be easy, not by a long shot, especially with everyone knowing what went on, but dad, you were as much a victim in this as the rest of us. Even Ginny, as unpleasant as she is making this right now, is a victim of Molly and Dumbledore."

The two wizards made their way towards the house, Bill worried about how his father would survive left all alone in the house that he had once shared with his former mother, but he had been paid a visit by a few of his father's old friends and they had promised to step up to keep him from falling into the doldrums after everything that had happened.

Bill went up to his former bedroom and sat down to write yet another note to his sister's Head of House finding himself rather glad that it was Snape dealing with this, as his no-nonsense manner just might be what his sister needed.

Harry was seated in his favorite chair in the common room, Hermione in the chair next to him and the more sensible of the Patil twins was reading across from them. Looking up from where he was reading the newest of the Lockhart books, he asked: "Hermione, when did this idiot say he fought that werewolf?"

Frowning when she didn't recall immediately, she was reaching for the timeline binder that they had created regarding Lockhart's books of folly when Padma sighed and said "Oh, the same time as he was facing the galloping ghoul in Transylvania or maybe when he was fighting off a whole horde of harpies. Those books are nonsensical."

"We know," Hermione said with amusement in her voice. "We figured it out immediately after reading the first book. Still, you seem rather annoyed, even more so than we are."

"YOU two didn't have to put up with Lavender or live with my sister this summer. I swear, since the moment they announced he would be teaching, what little brains either of them one had, have gone missing." Padma replied just as they heard the bell to let them know that dinner would be soon. "I am almost looking forward to how they react when that idiot gets his comeuppance. I am hoping that is why the Headmistress brought in that auror to be our Head of House."

"I hope so." Harry knew from Sirius that McGonagall wanted Lockhart gone but had had to honor the grinning git's contract thanks to how Dumbledore had written it. With a grimace, he ran his backpack up to his room, knowing that he had a meeting with Snape that evening and he had no idea what it was about.

Ginny Weasley sat on the bench off towards the end of the Slytherin table for the evening meal, grandly ignoring every single snake except for the one who sat across from her. Cassie Warrington, when she had refused to come down for dinner had hexed her into her robes, placed a Slytherin tie around her neck then floated her into the Great Hall.

Ginny had wanted to cry, angry at being forced to be seen in the colors of the most hated house in the history of Hogwarts. How on earth would her beloved be able to forgive her for this betrayal? Looking down at her plate, with no intention of speaking to anyone, she had eaten sparingly, worried that the other girl might have poisoned her because of who she was.

As the puddings arrived on the table, she heard laughter over at the Gryffindor table and was convinced that everyone there was laughing at her. Angry she looked up only to see that no one was paying any attention to what was going on where she was, no, all eyes were on her twin brothers who were braying like donkeys.

Harry laughed as he saw that the twins found humor in their rather interesting transformation. "Twins, who did you piss off?"

With a smirk on their matching faces, the left twin announced "Oliver Wood."

"What did you do to poor Oliver?" Hermione asked as she looked torn between laughter when they suddenly brayed yet again and anger at the prank.

"Since he likes mud so much, we brought him some frown down by the Black Lake." The right twin stated.

"And we gave him something that would just absolutely love that smelly mud," Lee said with a laugh that turned into a look of concern when the twins brayed again. Looking around the Great Hall with a bit of fear on his face, he said: "I am guessing that Oliver found the pot belly pig we gave to him as a gift."

"Oh, you don't know the half of it." Bettina the sixth-year prefect said as she looked at Lee. "He isn't the only one you three jackasses upset. That pig decided to sleep under Percy's bed all day. Needless to say, the entire room smells like damp pork. I do believe that they have teamed up to take you two out. As for you, Jordan, so far you have remained out of their range, you might wish to keep it that way."

Seeing the fear, she decided to poke them yet again, "Plus guys, did you forget the new Head of House?

The twins stared in horror at each other, they hadn't thought about Percy when they had pranked Oliver and they wished that they had. They had learned that summer that unlike what they had long thought, Percy did have a sense of humor, a rather dry one but one that when paired with his brains meant that they were in deep, deep trouble.

Add that to Kingsley Shacklebolt's appointment, they were not feeling so good as they turned and exited the Great Hall as quickly as possible, still braying as they walked out the door.

Professor Gilderoy Lockhart entered the Great Hall late and sat down next to the Headmistress as he felt was his right, after all, he was the most famous person in the room. He felt a small frown causing wrinkles when he saw that Potter boy, but quickly smoothed them away, refusing to be worried about a not even teenage boy being more famous than himself, horror of horrors it might cause wrinkles!

As looked over the students, he was dreaming of all of them fawning all over him when he heard a quiet cough. Looking over to his right with just the perfect amount of disdain in his voice, he asked "Do you need to my help brewing a pepper-up potion, Professor Snape. I assure you, I am quite able to one, almost beyond measure at how good it is..."

"If I should ever have need of such a potion, you may rest assured, I will be quite willing to have you attend to my care," Severus said in a droll tone as he looked at the idiot who had sat himself down in his spot. "However, if such an unlikely event should occur where within you are my only hope, I would prefer that instead you simply perform the killing curse to put me out of my object misery as clearly I would be on my deathbed."

"My good man..." Shacklebolt who had also just returned from speaking to two of his sixth-year students, looked like he was struggling not to laugh out loud from where he sat next to Sinestra and Vector. Snape was sure that Minerva had brought him in to replace the village idiot, but clearly, until then she would find a use for the man's talents.

"Excuse me, Professor Lockhart, but you are in the Deputy Headmaster's chair." Minerva interrupted what was likely to turn into bloodshed if the pompous popinjay were to keep speaking. "Severus, I have just had a wonderful idea regarding the new dueling club."

"Oh, dueling, I will take such joy in sharing my skills and knowledge with the students who choose such a..."

"Lockhart, kindly please remove your hind end from my seat," Severus ordered, attempting to keep things civil, even if he wished nothing more than to poke out his eardrum with his wand after spending an hour trapped with the moron during the afternoon staff meeting. "Minerva, I also have to mention a few new ideas... Well, Lockhart, do you intend to move or do I need to move you myself?"

Lockhart glared at the wizard and scoffed "I am rather sure that the Headmistress would prefer to speak to someone as congenial as myself, after all, I am..."

"In my chair and I am fast losing my patience and you really don't wish for that to happen, now do you, Lockhart." Severus showed the blond git his wand, the tip glowing from a spell about to be released.

Lockhart looked at the dark haired wizard and then turning to the woman who was temporarily his boss and said "I do apologize for the uncouth attempts to usurp my position. If it wasn't for the students, this would have such a different ending."

With that, he stood and walked out of the Great Hall, angry at having to deal with these idiots, but he had had a revelation that spring. One that had had him scrambling to apply for the position of a professor here at Hogwarts.

The students...

They were an untapped source of not only income but adoration for one such as himself. Then when he had heard that they had let that old fool Dumbledore himself go, Gilderoy Lockhart knew, he just knew that it was destiny for one, such as he himself to take on the role of guiding the future of the magical world to greatness, in his likeness.

Oh, he would settle for being a professor this year, but he had his eye on the real prize and as old as McGonagall had to be, he was sure that within two years, he would be the newest and youngest Headmaster of the best magical school in the world. Just think of the things he could do, the books he could write, the influence he would have...

"What do you think is going on up there?" Hermione asked as she pointed out that Lockhart had been ousted from Snape's seat.

"Not sure, but if I was him, I wouldn't want to be upsetting Snape right now," Harry replied as he thought about the note he had been handed when he entered the Great Hall asking him to join Snape after dinner that it was regarding the youngest Weasley. He had shown the note to Hermione, but otherwise was staying silent.

"What are Dean and Seamus doing?" She asked as she looked over at the two boys who were attempting to do something to a glass of pumpkin juice.

"He is still trying to turn that into wine. He had better hope that..." Neville stated from where he had been entranced by his newest specialize plant book. As he took a bite of his dinner roll, he could hear the words and realized that Thomas and Finnegan were about to make a bad mistake.

There was a small explosion when the two boys looked up towards the head table with a sheepish expression on their faces. When Shacklebolt crooked his finger and ordered them to him, there were some quiet chuckles from their classmates and even a few of the professors at the scared expression on the boys' faces.

Harry felt something hit his arm and turned to his left only for Draco to slide onto the bench from his left side. "Funny."

"My godfather canceled his meeting with me tonight, said he was going to be speaking to you. Anything you wish to tell me?" The blond asked with a smirk on his face.

"No." He said handing the other boy his note. "Anyhow, why are you here?"

"I need your help, or rather the help of that very nice book your godfather gave to you earlier this summer." He replied while throwing a dark look towards the middle of the Ravenclaw table. "I wasn't able to speak to Flitwick, and things took a turn for the worse this afternoon when the first year girls returned what they took."

Hermione leaned in and told the three boys. "Bettina, Cassie Warrington and the fifth year Hufflepuff prefect ordered them to do so. I heard them gathering the girls in the hallway earlier."

"Well, I just overheard Edgecombe and Chang plotting and I want to end this and I know the perfect spell to do so with," Draco replied.

Harry bumped fists with his cousin then saw Neville had a nervous grin on his face as he offered to help.

"You two are going to get in trouble. Just go tell Flitwick." Hermione replied shaking her head, knowing that the two boys had been looking for an excuse to try one of the pranks but had been waiting to find someone who deserved it first.

Later that evening just past curfew Severus Snape took the wrapped package he received back to his quarters, suffered through the attention of that damned stuffed bear, then opened it up. Reading the note from the eldest of the Weasley boys, he shook his head and tossed it aside.

Reading the letters and deciding he needed to talk to Minerva about what was in them, then arrange for the clinician that he had provided from his clinic for the Weasley girl to begin paying them visits. Clearly, this girl needed real help.

As for Molly Prewett, well there was a spell that could be used to keep her away and to prevent her from getting the post to her daughter. He seemed to recall there was also one that Arthur could perform, but he suspected that the rather soft-hearted man would be unable to do what was necessary, even if it would help his daughter.

With a sigh, he exited his quarters and went to join his fellow Head of Houses at their usual beginning of the year meeting, the first ever to be held in the quarters of the new Headmistress.

Poppy had just finished speaking to Minerva about the two second-year Slytherin girls who had hexed each other with spots, had had to chuckle at the reaction from Severus to his seventh year prefect's solution of forcing both girls to go a complete week without any help from said potions when she saw Filius joining them and wearing a scowl on his normally easy-going face.

With a shake of his head as he refused to accept the small wee dram of whiskey, he said "I just sent letters to Edgecombe and Chang's parents. They felt it was acceptable to torment a first-year student and none of my older students were standing in their way except Malfoy and his fellow second years."

"What about your prefects?" Sprout asked from her spot on the sofa.

"When they heard about it, they came to me, but only after said the first-year student spend the day in borrowed clothes. They are in detention for the entire month and the worst part is that I had to hear about it from two of your Puff's, Pomona."

"I have to admit, I expected my Lions to be the first to violate the new rules, not your Eagles, Filius," Minerva admitted. Seeing the inquiring expression on Sprout's face, she said "Shacklebolt left it up to Oliver Wood and Percy Weasley to deal with his brothers. There was no permanent damage and I do have to admit, that it was nice to see Mr. Weasley smiling for the first time since he arrived yesterday."

"The Weasleys are going to have a hard time of it with that sister of theirs," Severus said. "Aurora and I searched her belongings and found several items hidden within them. Nothing illegal, but all connected to her worship of Potter."

"The damage Molly did to that girl..." Minerva bit her tongue then admitted "While Albus was responsible for Molly, how could a mother do what was done to that girl? She is acting as if she has been imperioed."

"I checked, she wasn't," Severus admitted. Looking into his own glass of whiskey, he said "Poppy, I have a likely suspect for the lurker in the girl's room. Theodore Nott, he has been attempting to escape Pansy Parkinson, his family betrothed him to her this past year. He heard that no one ever went in there and thought he could hide out. I spoke to him and hopefully, this will be the end of that."

"I had intended to speak to Potter regarding the Weasley girl but postponed the discussion until after I had read her brother's note. I am now glad I did. I think that going forward, I should try to keep her away from him, at least until she has spent some time with the mind healer." Snape said with a shake of his head.

"One more thing, we had a first year caught with a broom, Severus." Seeing his surprise, she said, "It was that Robards boy."

Suddenly getting why they were telling him, he looked at Poppy who nodded ruefully and said "The mysterious bruising, he landed on his face yet again this evening at dusk on the Quidditch pitch. Luckily Hagrid found him and brought him to me. The same pattern of bruises, though, when his older brother who graduated last year finds out he broke his broom, I expect him to be hexed."

At breakfast the first morning that classes were to start their second year at Hogwarts, Harry was hiding the urge to laugh as Hermione glared at him. "What?"

"I am not talking to you." She replied with a slight giggle escaping in spite of her best efforts. She wanted to be mad at him for helping Draco with his plan, but it was difficult to be when he gave her that puppy dog look. When he did it yet again, she smacked his arm and said: "Stop!"

"I thought you wanted revenge for Luna." He replied in a soft whisper as he looked over at the Ravenclaw table where Cho Chang and Marietta Edgecombe were now a very lovely pea green color after attempting to steal more of Luna's possessions.

"I did, but what if you get caught?" She replied while eyeing the teacher's table. She was almost certain that she had seen Professor Snape's narrowed eyes on Harry after he had seen the two Ravenclaw girls rather unattractive coloring.

"How? We didn't do anything to them, directly. All we did was have Dobby bring Luna's trunk to that empty classroom, then we put the anti-theft charm on it before returning it to her dorm. If they were affected by it, that was because of their ill intent." He replied.

"Just be careful, okay?" She asked with a slight smile on her face as she saw the headmistress standing to speak to the man she had introduced the previous evening as their pro-tem Head of House.

Worried that Harry was about to be caught, she was a bit surprised when instead of coming to speak to Harry, Shacklebolt came off the raised platform and went to speak to that talkative first year, Creevey who had been about to take Harry's picture with his ever-present camera.

Severus saw Filius was late joining them and leaned over to inquire "What happened to Edgecombe and Chang?"

Shaking his head the diminutive professor said "They refuse to answer my questions about what they had been doing before being turned green. My guess, they were into something that they shouldn't have been. Poppy said that it is a charm, not a potion. At first, I was sure that it was in revenge for what happened to the Lovegood girl, but they are refusing to answer."

"Yes it is a charm and I have a pretty good idea what happened to them. I myself was affected by a similar charm. It's set to change their skin coloring if they were to touch something that didn't belong to them. More than likely Lovegood's trunk since I heard Black and Potter discussing a theft prevention charm yesterday evening." Snape replied.

Seeing Filius stiffen, he told him what he had been told by his godson the night before. "I did some mild probing. It's true."

"I was afraid of this. Those two young women are in for a rather rude awakening." Flitwick announced as he picked up the class schedules with the intent of distributing them to his students. When he arrived at the fourth year grouping, he looked at Edgecombe and Cho and ordered them to his office immediately after breakfast.

In London, Sirius Black was eating breakfast with Moony and watching a growing situation at a nearby table. Hiding his need to chuckle as the future Mrs. Lucius Malfoy was proving to be a bit more headstrong than her fiancee had been expecting, he couldn't help eavesdropping as she shrilly announced that she had no intention of being nothing more than a baby maker for him.

When the older wizard leaned in and whispered something to her, then exited the restaurant, he got an earful as the girl argued with her parents. "He already has a brat, I don't want kids, I don't intend to be nothing more than a housewife."

"That you are fertile is why he honored you with this betrothal." He overheard. "You will do as you are told, girlie." Her father announced before standing and turning to his wife. "Deal with her."

When the elderly man walked away, his wife who was at least twenty-five years younger than him, smiled at their daughter and said: "Don't worry dear, there are ways around that."

Davina Nott put up a silencing charm and thought that it was enough, unaware that both men at the next table had a canine's sense of hearing and could hear her telling her the charm to prevent children that her husband couldn't overcome.

Sirius loathed Malfoy and under normal circumstances would take pleasure in his plans being thwarted but after spending the summer with Draco and understanding that the younger boy didn't wish to be his father's heir, he decided to ruin his own enjoyment in the situation and decided to send the memory to Malfoy Senior.

When the two women had left, loudly discussing shopping for a wedding dress, he told Remus what he planned and the two Marauders moved on to discussing finding the Potter portraits and what to do about Dumbledore.

"Why would that editor even think of offering someone like Dumbledore a job as a writer for the Prophet," Sirius said as they paid their bill.

Walking past the toadlike Undersecretary who sneered at Lupin, they had just exited the building when Remus said "Have you read the Prophet lately? Even with that reporter Rita Skeeter going to jail for being an unregistered animagus and using it for illegal spying there are quite a few worthless reporters left on staff."

"Well, when I threatened to sue, they changed their mind right quick about hiring the former headmaster," Sirius replied as they went their separate ways. Remus to the Potter estate and Sirius to meet up with Narcissa who was taking care of a small matter for him.

By lunch, Harry was in a very happy mood. First, they had had a class with the headmistress and he had once again had no problems doing the spells that they were reviewing from the previous year, earning him five points.

Then, he had attended his first History of Magic class, this time with a professor who clearly knew what she was doing and to his ultimate joy, she had begun with the four Hogwarts founders and the Chamber of Secrets had been mentioned. Also that Salazar Slytherin's familiar had possibly been a basilisk.

All things that had been known in his first go-round, but due to incompetence he hadn't been taught. This hopefully would make things easier if the Chamber was reopened and if that book somehow ended up at Hogwarts.

The next project on his agenda, the exposure of Peter Pettigrew as the pet of Ron was the one that was the hardest to find a way to handle. He knew it had to be soon before the rat/traitor tried to escape, but how?

He had already used the map to assure himself that the rat was still in the castle and sure enough, it was. He ignored Lockhart, well aware that the headmistress was already working on a plan to deal with that fraud.

When he heard someone saying Harry my boy, he turned around, worried it would be either the fawning Potions professor trying to get him to attend his so-called special club or that pompous git Lockhart, he wasn't happy to instead see Dumbledore himself.

Groaning, he was looking around for a professor when to his pleasure, there was a rush of students arriving in the Great Hall for lunch. Allowing himself to be pulled towards their table by Hermione, he watched as the crestfallen man was accosted by Sprout and Flitwick who led him off towards the tower he had once called home.

"What did Dumbledore want?" Neville asked as he joined them.

"Thankfully, I didn't have time to find out. But I do intend to let Sirius know that he was on the grounds without supervision." He replied. Looking around, he saw that Ron was talking in an animated manner with his housemates and asked: "What has Weasley so excited?"

"He was telling them about his trip to Romania and how he was invited to return next summer," Padma said as she joined them for lunch. "He ACTUALLY turned in a homework assignment for a change. Didn't you see that in Transfiguration?"

"Sorry, was reading that book that the Headmistress gave me," Harry admitted.

"What was that about anyhow?" Hermione asked.

With a wink, Harry said "Well my dad was an animagus, like Sirius and his other old classmate. I asked how hard it was to become one and she gave me that book to read. Unfortunately, it can't be attempted for at least another year, but it will be nice to know the theory beforehand if I decide to try it."

"I read that you have to have the ability to do so, then you have to be strong in transfiguration then it takes forever to learn how to do it. No thanks for me." Padma replied. "I would rather learn more spells than train forever to be able to do that. I mean, what good does it really do?"

Harry merely nodded that he heard, he didn't agree, he felt that learning to do the transformation would be incredible, but knew that not all agreed. Looking over at Hermione, he blushed when he saw she was watching him. "What?"

"You know, I have spent the entire summer with you, so I didn't notice, but I overheard a few of the girls talking about how different you look now and I have to say... they are right." She said her own face turning a soft pink color at that announcement.

The twins joined them and after a furtive look around reached for their midday meal. "Have you seen Oliver or my brother?"

"Not since meeting him on the pitch again this morning," Harry replied.

"Why?" Hermione asked the twins noticing how they were eyeing the doors.

"Auror Shacklebolt gave them a hunting license," Bettina announced as she walked over with a grin on her face. "Told them that hunting jackasses was allowed under the school rules and that as long as there was no permanent damage to have at it."

"But-!" Hermione was about to explode in anger when she saw that Harry was grinning. "Wait, you know something..."

"I know lots of things, even some you don't." He said in a top-lofty manner. Seeing her glare he said "Okay, okay. Well, Percy got permission to send the pig to the burrow. Seems like Oliver and he liked the crazy thing. Also, well I overheard that Shacklebolt and McGonagall are hoping to teach a certain duo a lesson about pranking. Apparently, they know how to end this, but they refuse to do what is necessary, right Fred and George?"

The twins bowed to their entering captain and prefect before leaning in and saying "Oh, this isn't over, not by a long shot. We might have just found our matches in pranking."

Harry chuckled, well aware that the Headmistress had had a meeting the night before with the Heads of the Houses and that they had all agreed that learning what it was liked to be the victim of the prank might be good for the twins. He had overheard Snape talking to Sprout that morning about it when he had approached the man about his meeting.

He had also learned that Chang and Edgecombe were banned from Quidditch, had to be supervised when not in class and that they were told one more incident and both would be suspended for the year and not allowed to return to Hogwarts until September next year.

"So, does anyone really want to head to Defense Against the Dark Arts?" Hermione asked in a rather lackluster tone. They had all heard that every single class had had a pop quiz in their first class with the idiot. One regarding his likes, dislikes, and even hair products. Most of the young girls had done well, none of the boys had and even a few like Cedric Diggory had written their parents objecting to his idiocy.

"No." Padma, Neville, and Harry all replied. With a sigh, Harry looked at the emptying out Great Hall and said: "But I really wish to avoid detention with him, so we probably should head that way."

"So, we have class together." They heard a familiar sounding voice. Looking at Draco who was wearing a smirk on his face, Harry muttered well if you can call it one.

"I saw something very interesting when visiting my godfather." The blond said in a tone meant to get their attention. "A stuffed bear dressed as a bat chained to his wall by shackles."

"I always knew he was weird," Padma said with a slight frown on her face. "But a stuffed bear?"

Harry struggled not to laugh as his eyes met Draco's. The blond nodded then leaned over to whisper "He saw me looking at it, so I avoided looking into his eyes, I don't think he suspects anything, but just in case..."

Groaning, Harry knew that it wouldn't take long for the Potions master to figure out who and what had been done to that bear and was already accepting that he would have detention at some point when he reluctantly entered the DADA classroom.

By the end of class, he had been given detention for his answers to Lockhart's quiz and had been frowned at by Hermione who had suggested that he fake answering the questions before they had even arrived.

Harry, however, had a plan. He knew that all detentions were to be extra assignments in the class that the teacher taught, no longer was busy work accepted detentions unless assigned for something that happened in the halls, so he had taken a risk and he was almost positive that the blond big teethed moron would assign him to help him write his fan letters again.

Sure enough, that was what happened and he immediately exited the classroom after doing the assignment and squirreling away one of the fan mail letters, hurried off to see the Headmistress.

He arrived in time to overhear her thanking her house elf. Knocking on the door, he was told to enter and handed over the fan letter. "Mr. Potter, what is this and why do you have it?"

"I was assigned detention after my first DADA class." Harry pulled out the copy of his test from that day and handed it over.

She read the test and struggled not to chuckle at Harry's rather cheeky answers, but admitted: "While this test is without merit, I do agree on that, your better response would have been to put down you didn't know or not to answer at all before bringing this to me."

"He gave that test to every single class he had today," Harry admitted. Seeing her eyebrows raising, he said "Yes."

"I will deal with that as well, now explain the fan letter." She replied.

"I took the detention, I knew I deserved it but he also violated the rules regarding detention. He had me answering his fan mail letters this evening." He heard her groaning and said, "Between the many, many portraits of himself that kept winking at me and then the excessive fawning and even some rather explicit offers from witches to him within the letters, I seriously was not going to let this go."

"Thank you, Mr. Potter. Now head on up to your tower." She stated then when he was about to leaven, she added. "This will be addressed and I will keep your name out of the being the person who gave me the test."

"Thanks, Headmistress." He replied as he hurried towards his tower. To his surprise, he saw Ron Weasley walking down the hallway heading his way. "Weasley, how are you?"

The redhead stopped then grinned at Potter. "Fine, mate. I was visiting with Hagrid. He came to visit the dragon preserve this summer. What are you doing out still?"

"Detention with that git, Lockhart." He replied.

Rolling his eyes, Ron said "The girls in my house are all googly-eyed over that grinning git. Uh, well, um, look I just wanted to say, I am sorry about well, what my mom did, but have the twins, well have they told you about my sister?"

Putting Ron out of his misery, Harry assured him that he had been told about Ginny and her belief that he would still be her prince charming.

"She broke my broom. Now I can't try out for the Quidditch team." Ron said sounding miserable. "I have some money saved up, but it isn't even enough for a used broom. Stupid bint. Anyhow, I heard you made the team."

"Yes, I am going to be playing seeker," Harry replied while amazed at how calm Ron was, maybe without direct contact with Harry, his jealousy about his wealth had faded. "Sorry about the broom, mate, tough luck that."

"Yeah, but hopefully I will be able to save enough this summer. I was going to try out for chaser as Wheatly is our keeper which is the position I really want, so maybe this will be fine." He replied then noticed his pet rat trying to escape from his pocket. "Stupid rat. Percy promised to create a new cage for it, but I guess he forgot."

Harry had an idea and felt guilty but thinking maybe he could exchange the rat for a broom, as he looked at the redhead. "You know, I am heading back to the tower, I could take him with me. We have a spare cage in our rooms because Neville was gifted with an owl and the cage for his old frog Trevor is still there. Maybe Percy could bring him to you along with the cage tomorrow."

"Thanks, mate," Ron said.

"Hey, do you mind if we practice that new charm on him, while I have him in the room." Harry casually asked, thinking that this might work out perfectly. Shacklebolt was supposed to be visiting the dorms this evening, maybe, just maybe he could achieve all his goals at once.

"Yeah. Go ahead, but he isn't magical, Potter. Just a common rat my brother Percy found out in our garden when he was a first-year student." Ron said as he handed over the squirming rat.

"Hey, so, anyhow, sorry about your broom. Weasley." Harry said as he returned to the tower. Once in his dorm room and he had the rat in the unbreakable cage that McGonagall had conjured the year before for the always escaping toad, Harry let a grin come to his face as he struggled not to tell Peter, he had him.

TO Be Continued